Page:Shirley (1849 Volume 2).djvu/109

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
MR. DONNE'S EXODUS.
97

CHAPTER IV.

MR. DONNE'S EXODUS.

The next day Shirley expressed to Caroline how delighted she felt that the little party had gone off so well.

"I rather like to entertain a circle of gentlemen," said she: "it is amusing to observe how they enjoy a judiciously concocted repast. For ourselves, you see, these choice wines and these scientific dishes are of no importance to us; but gentlemen seem to retain something of the naïveté of children about food, and one likes to please them: that is, when they show the becoming, decent self-government of our admirable rectors. I watch Moore sometimes, to try and discover how he can be pleased but he has not that child's simplicity about him. Did you ever find out his accessible point, Caroline? You have seen more of him than I."

"It is not, at any rate, that of my uncle and Dr. Boultby," returned Caroline, smiling. She always felt a sort of shy pleasure in following Miss Keeldar's lead